February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The Faithful county had scores quickly on the board with Brendan Moran, Shane Cunningham, and Colin White being on target early. They led 0-5 to nothing midway through the period, and Offaly might have been further ahead, except that keeper Chris Clarke brought off a superb save from Moran.
Niegel Carney registered his first score after he dispossessed Eddie Greenan. Indeed twenty minutes elapsed before Meath got their first score from Tommy Fields. Meath came more into the game but a series of wides left them with a solitary score, while the industrious Tommy Quaid’s effort left Offaly ahead by 0-7 to 0-1 at the break.
Little changed on the change over as points from Quaid and Cunningham extended Offaly’s lead. James Kavanagh and John Mason came on for Offaly while further points from Quaid opened up a ten point lead before Brian Newman got Meath’s first score of the period. Meath might have inched their way back after Newman was fouled in the square. The resulting penalty by Seamus Harte was saved by keeper McGinley. The game continued at a rather pedestrian pace with points coming from White, Moran, and Cunningham while Fields had two and Sean Carrigan a point to end a rather dull game. With back-to-back wins for Offaly, the Faithful county are in line once again for championship honors.
Offaly: John McGinley, Mark Dolan, Chris Willis, Brain Delaney, Paul Murphy, John Fitzpatrick, Noel Coughlan, Mike Bryons, Shan Cunningham(0-4), Niegel Carney(0-1), Anthony O’Grady, Tommy Quaid(0-4), Danny Leavy, Colin White(0-3), Brendan Moran(0-2).
Subs: James Kavanagh, John Mason, Karol Kelly.
Meath: Chris Clarke, Niall Tallon, Conor Killeen, Michael Conroy, Sean Killeen, Eddie Greenan, Seamus De Bruin, Sam Yore, Cathal Kerrigan, Tommy Fields(0-3), Sean Carrigan(0-1),Kieran Gaughan, Seamus Harte, Brian Newman(0-1).